Qualcomm to bring 4G to feature phones

This is the highlight of their mobile platform and will be made possible, courtesy of the X5 Category 4 LTE modem coupled with a dual-core 1.1 GHz processor, Adreno GPU, and dualSIM support.

After moving away from its Snapdragon branding last week, Qualcomm has today taken the wraps off its first mobile platform aimed at bringing 4G LTE connectivity and services to entry-level feature phones.

The Qualcomm 205 Mobile Platform is created to bring 4G LTE connectivity and 4G services to entry-level feature phones. Now, what does that mean is, it will allow for peak download speeds of up 150 Mbps and upload speeds at 50 Mbps & also Voice over LTE (VoLTE).

Although most of the metropolitan phone users usually own a feature phone as a secondary device, if at all, these cheap phones register nearly 1/3rd or more sales in developing nations in Latin America, Indian subcontinent and South-east Asia. The new SoC also has support for Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, ANT+, and FM Radio. The chipmaker aims to tap this existing market by adding 4G services to them with its feature phone-focused suite.

In addition to its versatility, the USA company also boasted about the efficiency of the Qualcomm 205 Mobile Platform, saying that the devices powered by its new entry-level chip will be able to run for days on a single charge.

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Since this Platform is oriented towards feature phones, it does have limited support for camera and displays.

According to Qualcomm, the 205 Mobile Platform and its associated software has been developed in India, keeping in touch with the "Make in India" initiative. It will also support dual-SIM configurations. Qualcomm will support Linux-based operating systems on the platform. The Qualcomm 205 Mobile Platform will be now available for OEMs and ODMs, and the devices sporting the same would start retailing in the market from second quarter of 2017.

"The launch of Qualcomm 205 is a chipset for 4G feature phones which provides opportunity for OEMs, operators and content providers to extend experience of 4G on feature phones", Qualcomm Technologies Senior Vice President Jim Cathey said here. So far, the company has partnered with manufacturers such as Megafone, Nubia and HiPad to make 4G feature phones. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for the very bottom of the mobile market.

The new Qualcomm 205 Mobile Platform is created to bring 4G LTE connectivity and 4G services to entry-level feature phones.